If you have to pull an all-nighter, Provigil is your friend. The Air Force feeds it to fighter pilots to ensure they're alert after 40 hours without shut eye. In business circles Provigil is often referred to as "the entrepreneur's drug of choice." The new pep pill on the block is Nuvigil, which Cephalon (the company that also makes Provigil) is up front about positioning as mind candy for suits. Got a business meeting after a red-eye? Nuvigil. Have to drive some "cargo" overnight from Tijuana to San Francisco? Nuvigil. Kick ass today and sleep it off tomorrow.

BOOST ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE OR REMEMBER WHERE YOU PARKED

You should take: ERYTHROPOIETIN (EPO)

What you need to know:

This drug has caused its share of sports scandals. It turns you into superman but doesn't shrink your nuts (anabolic steroids) or cause the bones in your face to grow abnormally (HGH). Essentially, EPO stimulates the production of red blood cells. The more red blood cells you have at a given time (say, during Tour de France), the more oxygen your blood can carry the better your muscles perform. Scientists have noted a side effect in patients who use EPO legitimately to combat anemia and kidney failure: It enhances memory.

SLAY STAGE FRIGHT

You should take: INDERAL (PROPRANOLOL)

What you need to know:

You know how you need a few drinks before you approach that blonde at the bar? Think of Inderal as a magic pill that gives you beer balls. It's referred to as a beta-blocker, originally crafted to treat high blood pressure, but because it blocks adrenaline, it also cures stage fright. Concert cellists have been known to pop this stuff before performances. "In the past two or three years I've had more people come to the office wanting beta-blockers for things like PowerPoint presentations , primarily people giving in-office talks when their boss is there," says Dr. William Walton, a Dallas-based physician.

What you need to know:
These fellas make up antianxiety wing of the storied benzodiazepine family, which has replaced barbiturates for the treatment of anxiety and insomnia. The first benzodiazepine (Librium) was discovered in 1955, and since then it's family has blossomed into more than 15 unique flavors that vary primarily in how quickly they act and how long they last. Klonopin came into vogue recently, as did Ativan, a fast-acting drug for immediate relief of anxiety, It's important to note the older you get, the slower your body will process some benzodiazepines, meaning the effect can be prolonged.

FOCUS

You should take: RITALIN (METHYLPHENIDATE), ADDERALL (AMPHETAMINE AND DEXTROAMPHETAMINE

What you need to know:
These pills are forms of amphetamine that big pharma produces to make hyper kids (and adults) calm down. For people without ADHD it acts as a mild stimulant, giving them laserlike focus. Adderall tells the brain to amp up the activity of norepinephrine and dopamine, which essentially accelerates brain-cell efficiency. As a result its usage has reached epidemic proportions on college campuses. "It's the drug your parents want you to take," one college stundent tells us. It also has a come.down, which gives it a high potential for addiction in those who overindulge to stave off the refractory period.

What you need to know:
These all work similarly, by increasing blood flow to your member. But bear in mind the differences: Viagra and Levitra take half an hour to start and last four and five hours, respectively. Cialis takes 15 minutes to take effect and lasts up to 36 hours. While on these, you won't hard all the time, but you should be able to achieve erection when you want. These drugs affect the circulatory system, so if you have heart issues, talk to your doc. Oh, and if you end up with 12-hour erection, find someone to share it with.

What you need to know:
These drugs are classified as sedative hypnotics. They don't knock you out like old school sleep aids; they suggest to your mind that it's time for sleep. They wear off after two to three hours, by whichpoint you're asleep, so when you wake up you don't feel as though the inside of your head is coated in carpet lint. People have been known to get up and do all kinds of things on Ambien, especially if they've been drinking or taking other substances. The most notorious effect is sleep driving, though there have also been reports of sleep eating and sleep sex. For the record, we oppose sleep driving.

STAVE OFF BALDNESS

You should take: PROPECIA (FINASTERIDE)

What you need to know:
Most people who take Propecia don't advertise it, In fact you'd be surprised to learn how many guys are on this drug. It makes hair grow on bald men's heads by blocking a hormone that kills hair follicles. Propecia is the only treatment on the market that reverses frontal receding; most other cures take care of just the bald spot on the back of your dome (and don't work nearly as well). Bear in mind once you start on Propecia you're stuck using popping it until you're ready to give in to nature's depilatory bulldozer. Dr.Marc Avram, director of the cosmetic surgical unit at New York-Presbyterin Hospital, warns, "If you quit, you lose the hair you've grown." We'd rephrase that to "the hair that it grew."

It's probably the best feeling Western made since the heyday of Roy Rogers. It's specially crafted to make us feel good. There's no disturbing subtext, and it takes a very modern approach to the issue of racism. Yes, there is racism but only the bad guys exhibit it. And there's no injuns, because you can't have injuns in a Western nowadays without it dwelling on the redman's plight and that's just too depressing. That's what this film gives you: the fun myth of Manifest Destiny without the sad reality of the subjugation of the native peoples.

Yes, when we were kids we played cowboys and indians, but now we feel guilty about it. Thankfully, when we were kids we also played white hat vs. black hat. Good guys with six shooters versus bad guys with six shooters. That's what Silverado taps into: the cool, still politically correct aspects of the Western. Good fun without the guilt. That's something Kasdan knows how to do. He wrote Raiders of the Lost Ark that conjured up a similar formula for the old pulp serials.

That's not to say the characters are simplistic. They compare quite favorably to characters in such classic old Westerns as Stagecoach. They just don't have the kind of depressing depth of character that you see in The Searchers. There are good guys and there are bad guys and there really isn't much doubt which is which. Still, there is really only one unsympathetic character in the whole film and that would Jeff Fahey's Tyree. You've got to have one really dirty dog in the movie, after all. The two main bad guys are Ray Baker's underdeveloped Ethan McKendrick and the charming Cobb played by Brian Dennehy. It's probably Dennehy's best performance. He's Claudius in the old West, "that a man may smile and be a villain!" Yeah, those are the best villains, not the dreary scowling ones.

It's probably the best feeling Western made since the heyday of Roy Rogers. It's specially crafted to make us feel good. There's no disturbing subtext, and it takes a very modern approach to the issue of racism. Yes, there is racism but only the bad guys exhibit it. And there's no injuns, because you can't have injuns in a Western nowadays without it dwelling on the redman's plight and that's just too depressing. That's what this film gives you: the fun myth of Manifest Destiny without the sad reality of the subjugation of the native peoples.

Fine supporting performances are turned in by John Cleese as a sheriff with the intelligence to know when he's run across the heroes of a Western, Joe Seneca as Danny Glover's father, Lynn Whitfield as Glover's sister, the scrumptious Amanda Wyss as phoebe the barmaid, Jeff Goldblum as the gambler Slick whose alliances are always up in the air, and a curiously uncredited Brion James as the curmudgeonly coot who leads a wagon train.

The plot revolves around the old conflict between farmers and ranchers. If you think about it now I'm sure you could successfully guess all the plot points ahead of time, but when you're watching it the movie's energy takes over and you just enjoy the roller coaster ride of fun and excitement!

Good, clean fun about a time we know was neither, but in the movies it can be.

Step 3: Change folder icon
- Right click on your new folder and select properties
- Go to customize tab from above and click on change icon
- Scroll left until you see a blank icon (there are several, just pick one)

- Click ok till you get out of all menus
- Your hidden folder is ready for use

Martial arts legend Bruce Lee is famously quoted as saying "Fear not the man who's practiced a thousand punches. Fear the man who's practiced one punch thousand times". But Lee's amazing feats of martial arts prowess were due mostly to his amazing physical condition, so in addition to the proper technique, you'll need to condition yourself physically to perform this impressive display of striking power.

MODIFIED PUSHUPS

First, start doing special pushups, instead of putting your arms straight out, and setting your hands to bring your arms to 90 degree angles, keep your upper arms directly at your side, and set your hands in close formation directly under the center of your chest. In the down position, your elbows should be on either side of the lower part of your ribcage. In the up position, your arms should be straight. Don't worry about reps. Do as many as you can do perfectly, then stop. 150 bad pushups is not as good a 24 good ones. Do this three times a day, till you can do 100 flawless pushups

WING CHUN CHAIN PUNCH

Do this after every set of pushups. Take the stance in the picture on the left, feet shoulder width apart, your dominant hand in a loose fist just under your non-dominant elbow. Switch positions of dominant and non-dominant hands back and forth in a circular motion as quickly as you can, try not to let your hands or arms rub together, keep your fists directly in front of the centerline of your chest, and try and keep your shoulders perfectly still and relaxed. Do this 200 times between sets of pushups. There are plenty of videos on youtube teaching proper technique.

HEAVY BAG EXERCISE

Once you can do at least 1 set of 100 flawless pushups a day, separated by 200 reps of the wing-chun chain punch, start doing the chain punch into heavy bag instead. Punch the bag at chest level. And don't punch is as though you are punching the surface, punch it as though you're punching 4 inches beneath the surface. You may want to wrap your hands for this. Remember, technique is more important than speed, so if you see your form start to slip, slow it down and practice more before speeding back up.

TECHNIQUE

Ok, now that you have conditioned yourself for speed and strength, it's time to start practicing the actual technique. The Bruce Lee One Inch Punch starts by standing with your feet shoulder width apart, the distance between yourself and the subject should be the length of your outstretched fist minus 4 inches. With your elbow slightly bent, place your fist 1 inch from the dead center of your opponent's sternum. With your arm outstretched your fist would be 4 inches into his chest. Take a deep breath, and snap your arm into an outstretched position as quickly and forcefully as you possibly can. At the same time as you are straightening your arm, solidify your core so your shoulder doesn't absorb all the impact, and you don't send yourself reeling backwards instead of your opponent. Practice on a heavy bag until you can straighten your arm out all the way with little problems.

At first this sounds like a bad practical joke. Begin by turning the radio to a station playing static. Then lie down on the couch and tape a pair of halved ping-pong balls over your eyes. Within minutes, you should begin to experience a bizarre set of sensory distortions. Some people see horses prancing in the clouds, or hear the voice of a dead relative. It turns out that the mind is addicted to sensation, so that when there's little to sense - that's the purpose of the ping-pong balls and static - your brain ends up inventing it's own.

INCREDIBLE SHRINKING PAIN

Researchers at Oxford University announced the discovery of a powerful new painkiller: inverted binoculars. The scientists found thats subjects who looked at a wounded hand through the wrong end of the binoculars, making the hand appear smaller, felt significally less pain and even experienced decreased swelling. According to the researchers, this demonstrates that even basic bodily sensations such as pain are modulated by what we see. So next time you stub your toe or cut a finger, do yourself a favor: look away.

THE RUBBER HAND ILLUSION

If you happen to have a realistic-looking rubber arm in the closet, then this hallucination is for you. Begin by hiding your actual arm behind a box on a table so that you can't see it. Then arrange the fake arm on the table, so that from your point of view it looks like it could be your hidden arm

A friend should then stroke both the real hand and the rubber hand in the same place and at the same time. After a few minutes, you should feel like the fake limb has become your own flesh.

Then have your friend stab the rubber hand or hit it with a hammer: you will feel a powerful jolt of anxiety and pain, since your brain is convinced that the rubber hand is real.

THE PINOCCHIO ILLUSION

This requires two chairs and a blindfold. The person wearing the blindfold should sit in the rear chair, staring at the back of the person sitting in front. The blindfolded person should then reach around and place one hand on the other person's nose. At the same time, he should put his other hand on his own nose, and begin gently-stroking both noses. After about a minute, more than 50 percent of subjects report that their nose feels incredibly long.

PURKINJE LIGHTS

Jan Purkinje, a founding father of modern neuroscience, stumbled upon a reliable hallucination as a child. First he closed his eyes (very important), then tilted his head to face the sun and moved his hand quickly back and forth in front of his closed eyes. After a few seconds, Purkinje reported appearance of "beautiful figures," which gradually become more intricate.

Scientists have since adapted this protocol for the lab, and constructed custom goggles that repetitively flash light at a particular frequency. This stimulation seems to short-circuit that visual cortex. Its cells start firing in unpredictable bursts, which leads to the perception of imaginery images. In this sense, the hallucinations are a side effect of our need to always make sense of reality, as the brain struggles to decipher this cacophony of sensory inputs.

The major plus of the film is its referencing of ancient Greek legend, so that this doesn't simply inform the theme but really becomes the theme - when the Warriors finally have their moment on the beach in Coney Island, you really do get a glimpse of how Xenophon must have felt like the day he and his men at last came to the Aegean after their harrowing retreat through Persia.

The comic book references are also a plus. Apparently Hill went in this direction because the studio insisted that a gang would have members from different ethnic groups, which is wholly unrealistic - gangs form in ethnic neighborhoods, and ethnophobia is one reason they form. So Hill chose a look that would emphasize the fantasy element the studio insisted on.

However, the grand comic book approach is not really in Walter Hill's range. I couldn't help thinking how much better a film this would have been had John Carpenter directed (especially since Carpenter stole moments from this film for his "Escape" films - and improved on them). And the comic book approach also determined Hill's direction of his young cast - and let's face it, none of them crest the margin of professionalism here.

There are awkward moments throughout the film. Much of it is anachronistic, almost embarrassingly so - the gang structures depicted in the film are pure 1950s; the clothing and hairstyles are late 1960s. the dialog is an off-setting mix of '50s and '60s. Within five years of the making of this film, most street gangs were becoming big business, thanks to the introduction of crack cocaine; in fact drugs are almost never used in this film, which is ridiculous. Finally, there's the music - nothing any gang member would be caught dead listening to, ever. The comic book/fantasy element simply doesn't justify or excuse these decisions, and they come off feeling like mistakes.

The fight scenes are pretty good for the day but are just begging for some real martial arts to tip them over the edge. The suspicion popular in the movie's era, that this film could inspire violence among the audience, is simply hilarious now. Obviously anyone committing violence after watching this film was going to do so anyway.

So we have an interesting reflection on an old Greek legend, a rapidly paced fantasy action film, and some unforgivable misfires in execution.

Customize desktop
You can download wallpapers, Windows themes, icons, and similar things at DeviantArt.com or Wallbase.net.

PC Maintenance
You should defragment your drives every couple of weeks and after large file transfers to keep them from slowing down. You can find the built-in utility at Start-> "defrag". Do not defrag SSDs!

You can disable unnecessary services for a very slight speed gain on old machines. Press Start and type "msconfig", go to "Services".

Configuring MPC-HC
Open the options at View->Options.

To use DXVA video card acceleration (CoreAVC is better on NVidia cards), go to Playback-> Output and choose "EVR Custom Pres", then go Internal Filters and make sure "DXVA" and not "FFmpeg" is checked for H.264 and VC-1. This may not work with intermediate filters/codecs (DirectVobSub, ffdshow, CCCP, etc), and will only work with supported cards (Radeon HD series, GeForce 8800/GT100 or newer).

Firefox
Pros: Very powerful extension system; best userscript engine (Greasemonkey); a lot of configuration via about: config.
Cons: The slowest of the "big 3", UI is only a few steps up from IE by default.

Opera
Pros: Tons of user configuration and built-in features; userscript support; very fast (sometimes close to Chrome).
Cons: No extensions; some pages render poorly or not at all.

RUNNING BAREFOOT
Advocates of running barefoot claim that doing so strengthens the muscles, tendons and ligaments of the foot and promotes a natural running galt that is less prone to injury.

Other claims
Shoes provide support, which doesn't allow the foot to strengthen and support itself.
Much like wearing thick mittens, shoes reduce proprioception, the body's awareness of itself to its enviroment.
Shoes add mass to the foot, slowing down the runner.

Starting out
People interested in running barefoot are encouraged to start by walking barefoot, increasing their time gradually so that the sole has time to become conditioned. This helps to avoid blisters.

The middle ground
Running shoes that are available are so minimal, they can emulate running barefoot, yet provide a sole that helps protect the foot from extreme weather conditions, rocks and glass.

The agony of the feet.
Injuries associated with running in shoes and over-doing it without proper conditioning:

Hamstring injuries: Tearing or excessive stretching of the muscles and tissue behind the knee.

Iliotibial band syndrome: Inflamation of the iliotibial band.

Knee pain: Caused by excessive, repetetive impact.

Calf muscle: Subject to tearing and inflammation

Shin splints: Caused by overuse of the muscles at the front of the lower leg.

Stress fractures: Hairline fractures of the tibia.

Ankle sprains: Footwear increases the risk by decreasing awareness of foot position or by increasing the leverage and twisting torque around the joint because of shoe height.

Achilles tendonitis: Aggravated by shoes with a high heel.

Plantar fasciitis: Inflammation of the ligament running along the sole of the foot.

Happy landings
Running barefoot changes the way the foot impacts the ground:

Barefoot
1. Before contact, the foot is in a more natural, relaxed position.
2. The runner lands on the forefoot and adjusts the impact instinctively because of increased sensitivity to the surface.

Shoes
1. Before contact, the foot is pointed upward.
2. Cushioned shoes encourage the runner to land heel-first.